European Community Law and
Recognition of Cultural Differences -European Court of Justice Case
Law
Seyed Mohammad Ali Taghavi
Fredowsi University of Mashhad (Iran)
The jurisprudence of the European Court of Justice (ECJ), regarding recognition of
cultural differences, is very limited, although it shows a slow moving trend towards
accepting the need for such recognition, or at least approving national laws that recognise
cultural differences and subsequently grant some rights or impose some obligations. As a
matter of fact, the restrictions imposed by the functions and capacity of the EC have
prevented the Court from active recognition of cultural differences. Although this sits ease
at ill with the ideals of inclusion and equality as the objectives of the EC, the truth is that
cultural differences should be recognised at the national level, in the first place. The
Court’s main contribution in this regard is then to endorse or authorise such recognition,
when there are objective reasons to do so. Moreover, ECJ jurisprudence can coordinate the
attempts made by the Member States for recognising cultural differences in order to strike a
right balance between the need for such recognition and the need for integration in various
dimensions of the EU.
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